Speaking in conversation with the University of Sydney's Lucia Sorbera, Soueif will discuss Egyptian literature and the role of women in the Arab Spring, read from her body of works, and sign books after the event.

Soueif was born and raised in Cairo. A successful novelist moving between London and Cairo, she returned to Cairo when the Egyptian Revolution erupted on 25 January in 2011. Along with thousands of others she called Tahrir Square home for 18 days. As the events in Egypt unfolded she reported for The Guardian newspaper.

Her published account of her participation in the revolution Cairo: My city, our revolution is a compelling blend of reporting and memoir as she not only chronicles the minutiae of a revolution but offers a lyrical portrait of the history of a city she, and many millions of other Cairenes, love fiercely and fought to protect.

Ahdaf Soueif is the best-selling author of the novel The Map of Love (shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1999 and translated into 28 languages), as well as the much-loved In the Eye of the Sun and the collection of short stories, I Think of You. Soueif is also a political and cultural commentator. She writes regularly for The Guardian in the UK and has a weekly column in al-Shorouk in Egypt. In 2007 Ms Soueif founded Engaged Events, a UK based charity. Its first project is the Palestine Festival of Literature which takes place in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin and al-Khalil/Hebron. Ahdaf Soueif is in Australia as a guest of the Perth Writers' Festival and Adelaide Writers' Week.